This is a old topic and likely no one will see it but I like lost causes so....
The idea that privacy equals freedom is as old as the Bill of Rights. In a abstract way (and to the best of my knowledge a way NOT decided upon by the Supreme Court to date) if you have no privacy then how can any search be unreasonable per the Fourth Amendment?
In a way that HAS been ruled upon by the Supreme Court the First Amendment's right to Free Speech and Gather are both protected by anonymity. I don't recall the first Supreme Court decision to hold something like this but I think it had to do with the right to gather being effictively worthless if people could not gather anonymously since the threat of adverse consequences could (and likely would) be used to dissuade people from gathering anonymously.
These gullies are likely to harbor life only if there is life under the majority of the martian surface. If it exists just around the poles and under the remnants of old seabeds then NASA would be wasting their time to look for life here. Since NASA cannot know where life is on Mars, if at all, it would do better looking in more likely places like those mentioned above.
Slashdot Mirror
The idea that privacy equals freedom is as old as the Bill of Rights. In a abstract way (and to the best of my knowledge a way NOT decided upon by the Supreme Court to date) if you have no privacy then how can any search be unreasonable per the Fourth Amendment?
In a way that HAS been ruled upon by the Supreme Court the First Amendment's right to Free Speech and Gather are both protected by anonymity. I don't recall the first Supreme Court decision to hold something like this but I think it had to do with the right to gather being effictively worthless if people could not gather anonymously since the threat of adverse consequences could (and likely would) be used to dissuade people from gathering anonymously.
Two recent decisions that link privacy with the First Amendment can be found here http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/97-930.ZO.ht ml and here http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/93-986.ZS.ht ml.
My apologies for the lack of HTML.
These gullies are likely to harbor life only if there is life under the majority of the martian surface. If it exists just around the poles and under the remnants of old seabeds then NASA would be wasting their time to look for life here. Since NASA cannot know where life is on Mars, if at all, it would do better looking in more likely places like those mentioned above.